Ahead of their F1 Grand Prix weekend debuts, Ferrari have given junior drivers Mick Schumacher, Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman a run out at their iconic Fiorano test track, with the Formula 2 trio getting behind the wheel of a 2018-spec Ferrari SF71H.

Schumacher and Ilott will both be in action at the upcoming Eifel Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, Schumacher taking the seat of Antonio Giovinazzi at Alfa Romeo for Free Practice 1, while Ilott will replace Romain Grosjean at Haas.

Meanwhile, Shwartzman will drive for one of the Ferrari customer teams at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Schumacher, Ilott and Shwartzman are currently first, second and fifth in the Formula 2 standings, with two double header rounds remaining, supporting the two F1 races in Bahrain in November and December.

The Friday practice session appearances will give Ferrari the chance to evaluate which, if any, of their Ferrari Driver Academy drivers they feel is ready for a promotion to Formula 1 for 2021 – with potential berths available at the Ferrari-affiliated Alfa Romeo and Haas teams that will be running the drivers in the FP1 sessions.

Check out images of Schumacher (#47), Ilott (#53) and Shwartzman (#35) in action at Fiorano the photo gallery [below].

Red Bull and AlphaTauri are on the search for a new power unit supplier after the shock announcement that Honda will withdraw from Formula 1 at the end of 2021.

The Japanese engine manufacturer returned to the championship in 2015 with McLaren, having been inspired by the new breed of power units that focused on hybrid and energy recovery technology.

They suffered a difficult and unsuccessful partnership, culminating in them splitting up and Honda joining forces with Toro Rosso for 2018, before taking on Red Bull as a works team the following year.

Across the two teams, they have clinched five race victories to date in their two-and-a-half-year partnership with the Red Bull family.

However, Honda have decided not to continue beyond their current arrangement with Red Bull and AlphaTauri, which exists until the end of next year.

Honda said the decision had been made because the automobile industry was going through a "once-in-one-hundred-years period of great transformation" and that they'll leave having been "able to attain its goal of earning victories".

"Honda will work together with Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri to continue competing with its utmost effort and strive for more victories all the way to the end of the 2021 season," the Japanese company added in a statement.

The decision will leave Formula 1 with three power unit suppliers – Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault. Under the current rules, Renault would be obliged to supply Red Bull and AlphaTauri with engines as they currently have the fewest customers, unless the teams can convince Mercedes or Ferrari to provide a supply.

Red Bull – on behalf of both their works team and AlphaTauri – have recently committed to the new Concorde Agreement, which binds them to the championship until the end of 2025.

"We look forward to embarking on a new era of innovation, development and success," said Red Bull boss Christian Horner, who said he understood and respected Honda's decision.

"As a group, we will now take the time afforded to us to further evaluate and find the most competitive power unit solution for 2022 and beyond.”

Following Honda's shock decision to leave F1 at the end of 2021, Christian Horner has underlined Red Bull's committment to the sport, with the Team Principal saying they are now in the process of evaluating power unit options for the future.

On Friday morning, Honda revealed their overall company strategy had changed and they will now be redeploying their resources to achieve their goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

That means when their arrangement with Red Bull and AlphaTauri - that runs until the end of next season - comes to an end, Honda will withdraw from the top echelon of motor racing, leaving the two teams in need of an engine supplier.

Horner said Red Bull have experience of such a scenario, having needed an engine supplier when they parted ways with Renault at the end of 2018, and therefore expressed confidence that they will find a solution once again.

“As a Team we understand how difficult it has been for Honda Motor Company to reach the decision to step back from Formula 1 at the end of the 2021 season,” he said.

“The shifting focus within the automotive industry has led to Honda’s decision to re-deploy their resources and we understand and respect the reasoning behind this.

“Their decision presents obvious challenges for us as a Team but we have been here before and with our strength in depth we are well prepared and equipped to respond effectively, as we have proven in the past.

“Our joint focus for the remainder of the 2020 and 2021 seasons are unchanged, to fight for victories and challenge for the championship. As a signatory to Formula 1’s latest Concorde Agreement, Red Bull Racing remains committed to the sport in the long term and we look forward to embarking on a new era of innovation, development and success.

"As a group, we will now take the time afforded to us to further evaluate and find the most competitive power unit solution for 2022 and beyond.”

He added: “Whilst we are disappointed not to continue our partnership with Honda, we are enormously proud of our joint success, delivering five wins and 15 podiums for both Red Bull owned teams and we thank everyone at Honda for their extraordinary efforts and commitment.”

Under the current rules, Renault would be obliged to supply Red Bull and AlphaTauri with engines as they currently have the fewest customers, unless the teams can convince Mercedes or Ferrari to provide a supply.

Like Red Bull, sister team AlphaTauri have enjoyed a hugely successful partnership with Honda since taking them on in 2018, peaking with victory at last month’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza with Pierre Gasly.

Team Principal Franz Tost wished Honda well and while he admitted it will be tricky to find a new power unit supplier, he insisted they will find a way.

“We certainly respect the reason behind Honda’s decision to focus on environmental initiatives and to strive for the realization of carbon neutrality, everybody at Scuderia AlphaTauri wish them well in reaching all their goals and to have a successful future ahead,” he said.

“We sincerely want to thank Honda for the fruitful cooperation, we really enjoyed every day we’ve been working together. It won’t be easy to find an engine partner like Honda but, of course, we will start looking at all possibilities to find the best Power Unit solution from 2022 onwards.”

The Coronavirus pandemic has impacted sporting activities around the world. And now, the Turkish Grand Prix is set to bear the brunt of it, with the race now scheduled to take place behind closed doors.

From the time it was announced, over 40,000 tickets were sold for the event. Istanbul was all set to follow Nurburgring, Algarve, and Imola, to host the race with supporters in the stands.

But this latest decision was taken by Governorship of Istanbul on Monday. This was done in a bid to control the rising number of COVID-19 infections in the city and country.

Turkish GP will now be held without spectators

According to the latest statement from the Governorship, it revealed, “Within the scope of efforts to combat the coronavirus epidemic, and in accordance with the recommendation of the Istanbul Provincial Pandemic Committee, the F1 Turkish Grand Prix will be held without spectators.”

The administrators at the Turkish GP were hoping that they could let in around 100,000 fans in total over the weekend. But this news would definitely have landed a blow to those plans.

However, desperate times do call for desperate measures. And the health and safety of the public, in general, takes precedence over all else. After all, fans can still witness the racing action from the comfort of their homes via broadcasts.

The last time the Turkish GP was held, Sebastian Vettel was still racing for Red Bull; in tremendous form, the 33-year-old German driver clinched victory on that occasion.

That win saw Vettel extend his lead over the challenger, Lewis Hamilton, to 34 points in the Drivers’ Championship standings. He would, of course, go on to comfortably lift the 2011 title.

But nearly nine years later, the tables have turned. Hamilton with Mercedes starts as the favorite for almost every race. Vettel, on the other hand, is struggling to even start in the top half of the grid.

However, it is a new location on this year’s calendar that adds to the intrigue. And it will be interesting to see who takes the initiative to steal the win this time at the Intercity Istanbul Park.

AMG branding is expected to feature more prominently on Mercedes' Formula One cars next year after parent company Daimler laid out its plans for its future commitment to the sport.

The news comes after months of speculation that Daimler was considering selling its F1 team -- a rumour that was repeatedly dismissed by both Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff and Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius.

The F1 team is already called the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team, but Daimler wants to deepen the links between its performance brand AMG and its on-track success.

The team is on the brink of a seventh consecutive world title this year and with the incoming budget cap is aiming to become cost neutral for its parent company over the coming years.

The AMG announcement was made on Tuesday as part of a Mercedes-Benz strategy update, which will see extra emphasis put on Mercedes' sub-brands AMG, Maybach, G and EQ.

Although the company plans to push all its brands toward electrification over the coming years, it still believes the hybrid technology used in F1 will be relevant to its performance models.

Kallenius used the example of the Project One hypercar, which is powered by a modified F1 engine, as an example of technology transfer between motorsport and the AMG brand.

"Formula One as the pinnacle of motorsport, the highest form of performance, we will use the technology we have developed in Formula One for performance hybrids and other exciting technologies in the future and put that into our AMG cars," Kallenius said.

"With Project One we are taking a Formula One powertrain and putting it on the road, so it comes naturally to us to leverage Formula One even more for AMG going forward."

The news comes less than a week after Honda announced its decision to pull out of F1 at the end of 2021 to focus its R&D efforts on electrification.

However, Mercedes' announcement on Tuesday indicates that Daimler still believes its F1 involvement is adding value to its brands.

Haas boss Gunther Steiner thinks it would be unethical for his team to turn its back on Ferrari and switch engine partners just because it is having a difficult year.

Even since Haas arrived in F1 in 2016 it has worked closely with Ferrari, using its customer engines and buying as many car parts off the Maranello outfit as the rules allow.

But Ferrari's step back in engine performance this year, as the result of technical directives issued ahead of the season, has contributed to Haas falling down the order too.

With its Ferrari contract running until the end of next year, allied to Renault being open that it is looking for fresh partner teams, it is clear that Haas could explore opportunities elsewhere.

But Steiner thinks that making an immediate switch, just because Ferrari is having a disappointing campaign, is not the right thing to do.

"I'm a believer in loyalty, as is Gene [Haas, team owner] as well," explained Steiner. "They [Ferrari] were instrumental to get us here, and they did a good job in doing that.

"Now they are a little bit in a difficulty, as we obviously know, but I think it will be hopefully a short term difficulty, and they will get out of it.

"Ferrari always came back. So to jump at the first opportunity, when you get a hurdle in your way, I think it's not very ethical, because without them we wouldn't be here. I go back to that one."

Steiner said that there were a number of factors in play that would decide its future Ferrari co-operation, including the fact that some of its organisation is based in Italy too.

"Obviously we need to see other opportunities as well, but other opportunities are very difficult for us because we have got a part of our infrastructure in Italy," he said. "So we would need to move everything to England, and that would not come for free.

"At the moment for us, it's the best solution to work hard with Ferrari on the future, and don't get distracted. But by no means, if a manufacturer wants to come up and talk to us about a free PU, we are welcome to listen!"

Steiner said that Haas had not spoken to any other power unit manufacturers about a future relationship, with Renault itself also suggesting that it was not pushing directly for any new deals.

Renault F1 team boss Cyril Abiteboul said: "We are not actively searching. We think it's a good add now that we have a long-term plan and a long-term commitment into the sport, and we are open to opportunity.

"But it's not like we are actively searching for opportunities simply because we have been involved in many customer arrangements. And it's still not that clear cut that it's bringing you something that you really need in order to meet your sporting targets."